


A Collection of Features

by abysmal_seraph (absymal_seraph)



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Angst, Gen, poor self image
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-05-10
Updated: 2014-05-10
Packaged: 2018-01-24 05:06:21
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 402
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1592678
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/absymal_seraph/pseuds/abysmal_seraph
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Shutting his eyes, Bruce tries not to think as Steve reduces him to lines on paper, boils him down to a collection of features Bruce can’t even look at without wanting to scream.</p>
            </blockquote>





	A Collection of Features

**Author's Note:**

> Prompt fic. The prompt was 'Innocence' and 'Steve/Bruce' from [this](http://bamf-happens.tumblr.com/post/82168185019/send-me-a-number-and-two-characters-get-a-drabble) post. It came out an angstfest with no real shipping whoops.
> 
> Heavy use of Bruce's comic background.

Bruce doesn’t usually let himself end up in situations like this. He ducks out of photographs, smiles wide and sincere when people try to coax him back. Lies sweet and honest and says he’s fine, he promises, don’t worry, he has things to do, have fun without him.

Bruce learned early how to sell a lie.

He avoids mirrors like a vampire. Peers into them only long enough to ensure he’s something approaching presentable then pointedly avoids his own reflection and the repetition of _monstermonstermonster_ that the sight of himself conjures.

So he doesn’t get why he said yes to Steve. (And there’s a lie, one he’s almost sold to himself. One he can cling to instead of admitting that he _feels_ the way Steve looks sometimes, lost and confused, and it makes Bruce want to fix it however he can despite Steve still being a near stranger to him.)

Shutting his eyes, Bruce tries not to think as Steve reduces him to lines on paper, boils him down to a collection of features Bruce can’t even look at without wanting to scream. 

He’s a horrible model, too tense and prone to fidgeting. Steve doesn’t complain, just adjusts him several times, first through words, later with hands that grasp with considerable care. It’s strange. Not many people touch Bruce. He won’t let them.

When it’s over, Steve asks if he wants to see. Bruce doesn’t but he takes the sketchbook, prepares to make the expected oohs and aahs as he avoids actually looking. He mistimes, catches the curve of his nose, the swell of his bottom lip, the lines around his mouth. He looks at the careful mapping of his features and doesn’t understand.

“Why would you draw me like that?”

“Because that’s how you look,” Steve answers, rooted and unwilling to be moved. He looks at Bruce as though he can hear it, the chant. Bruce’s father making sure he never forgets what he’s always been. 

Bruce shakes his head because no that’s his _mother_ in that face, the features skewed masculine but still _her_. But he’s never been her. She wasn’t the parent he took after. 

“That’s you, Bruce,” Steve promises like he means it and maybe he does. Lies sound awkward in his mouth, foreign and obvious to anyone not willingly blinded.

Bruce chooses, lie or not, to believe. Staring down at that drawing, he’s never felt so innocent.


End file.
